Saturday letters

We take issue with a malicious rumor that appeared in your homeless article on Sunday that stated: "The ACLU hired college students to pose as the homeless and monitor police."

The article labeled this as a rumor, but failed to tell your readers that:

1. The ACLU denied this rumor in a guest column in February.

2. Your reporter was told by our legal panel chairman, just before the story was written, that there was absolutely no truth to this rumor.

It would have been good, responsible journalism to mention this, the same way you wrote about another rumor -- that the homeless had been bused to Sarasota from St. Petersburg and Tampa. With that rumor, you made it clear to readers that it was just a rumor, and that the homeless had possibly only come from parts of Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Failure to similarly label the rumor about hiring students to pose as homeless as false -- when you had the information to do so -- was shameful, unprofessional journalism.

A little perspective: The ACLU sued the city of Sarasota over an ordinance that was clearly unconstitutional. A judge agreed, sending the ordinance back to the City Commission to be rewritten.

Like many people here, we believe that it is years overdue for the City Commission to devise a reasonable, humane plan to address the problem of homelessness.

But any ordinance, or any plan put forward, must follow the Constitution and respect the rights of everyone, including the homeless.

Peter Tannen, President

American Civil Liberties Union

of Sarasota, Manatee & DeSoto

The addiction link

in homelessness

Kudos to Tom Lyons on his article "Refusing beggars isn't equal to hate." He writes openly about a key problem in homelessness: addiction. It is both a cause and a result of homelessness, and is unsolvable without a mammoth expansion of long-term treatment programs.

Friends of mine started a homeless ministry in Atlanta. I was privileged to visit three times and be with them in the streets. They told me (and all volunteers) to never give anyone cash. They estimate that most of the people they ministered to suffered from addiction, and any cash went for drugs and alcohol. Recidivism among those who went through short-term treatment was about 90 percent.

Here in Sarasota, I was privileged to mentor a man who had come through the Salvation Army's residential program; thankfully, he is employed, clean, and dry after nearly four years. He estimates that most of the Sarasota homeless are addicted. This is not to condemn, for addiction is a horrible disease that ruins lives and breaks hearts.

If you want to be compassionate, buy a sandwich and hand it to someone. There also are a number of resources (e.g., the "Sallie" and All Faiths Food Bank) where the homeless can get food without begging. So please -- for their sake and for Sarasota's -- do not give them cash!

Bob Griffiths

Sarasota

Help tomato pickers

We cannot deal with the borderline poverty of the Immokalee Farm Workers until we realize the problem is systemic. The tightly wound participants are the Coalition of Immokalee Farm Workers, the growers, the retailer grocers and the consumers. If any one of these is called to an accounting, while all other participants are left untouched, the effort is doomed to failure. At least several participants should be involved.

The big retail grocers, because they have the most power, should pay the extra penny per pound to keep the workers above the poverty line. Letter writing and demonstrations have not worked so far. So, in order to effect this change, a significant number of consumer families must be willing to covenant together and refuse to buy at Publix and other stores that don't pay the penny extra for tomatoes,

These grocers are also in a position to influence the growers to raise worker wages in order to share the cost. As a member of the consumers, I am willing to pay extra cents for a pound of tomatoes. Are you also willing?

Roger Woods

Sarasota

Shame in Senate,

prayers for children

My condolences and prayers are with the families of the Sandy Hook children and other gun violence victims.

Shame on the spineless senators bought and paid for by the National Rifle Association.

Martha Overholt

Sarasota

Always a Marine

Once a Marine always, a Marine.

In this regard, I offer the following rebuttal to Friday's letter writer, referring him to www.usmarinesbirthplace.com.

"There are no ex-Marines or former Marines. There are (1) active duty Marines, (2) retired Marines, (3) reserve Marines, and (4) Marine veterans. Nonetheless, once one has earned the title, he remains a Marine for life."

The official Marine Corps motto "Semper Fidelis" (Always Faithful) voices loyalty and commitment to the Corps. Commitment never dies.

Terminology, correct or incorrect, does not diminish the message conveyed in the excellent reporting by Donna Koehn or Thomas Lee Tryon's editorials regarding the denial of benefits to the Camp Lejeune wounded warriors. Therefore, no offense was taken. Anyone who knows Tom Gervasi will never question his undying devotion to the Corps or of the justice in the favorable decision ultimately rendered by Veterans Affairs.